Crazy Penguin Catapult iPhone Review

Digital Chocolate's first shot on the iPhone is a direct hit.

Digital Chocolate is one of the most inventive mobile game makers, and the App Store is now a better place due to DChoc's arrival on the iPhone. Crazy Penguin Catapult comes to the iPhone not as a new game, but a port of one of the firm's more whimsical mobile games. You launch penguins through winter wonderlands via the titular catapult, bowling into polar bears. It's that simple. But it's that simplicity combined with real charm that makes this such an easy game to recommend.

Crazy Penguin Catapult stars a small army of penguins determined to get their ice floes back by knocking out a series of polar bears that have invaded their homes. The polar bears are standing around like they own the joint, so the penguins are about to launch a sneak attack to turn the tables. Via an underground catapult, you help launch penguins through the air and dive-bomb the bears. You must clear out a certain number of bears per stage to move on to the next.

The catapult's position underground means you must time your launches just right. The penguins bungee in front of the catapult. When you tap the catapult, it flips up and blasts the penguin's backside. If you hit the penguin too early or too late, you smash the penguin into the ceiling or wall of the cave. The more penguins you splatter, the fewer attacks you have to use on the bears in the second half of the stage.

Once you have launched all of your penguins, you then switch to a side view of the polar bears standing on ice structures. The penguins fly through the air above the bears. When you tap the screen, the penguin drops out of the sky beak-first to smashes into a bear. The penguins can bounce around, so if you hit a bear just right, the bird ricochets into another target. Some of the bears are in tunnels or under ice cubes, so you must use some penguins to clear a path to your quarry.

The more bears you peak off the floes, the more stars you earn. These stars are traded in for upgrades, such as extra penguins, additional bounces per penguin, or a fire penguin that melts ice on contact. Choosing different upgrades at different points in the game really affects both your strategies and fortunes. There are 30 stages, so you can easily make a couple laps through the game trying out the different upgrades to clear out all of the bears and maximize your scores.

In addition to the penguin catapult game, Crazy Penguin Catapult also includes a turn-based strategy game. The ice flow is turned into a grid. Each square is occupied by penguins or bears. Your goal is to overwhelm the polar bears by moving penguins on to the bear-owned squares. It's kind of a numbers game here. If you move an army of six penguins on to a square with just three bears, you are likely to win. You may have to use a couple penguin platoons to whittle down a square loaded with bears. This is a cool extra that helps make Crazy Penguin Catapult well worth the $5 price.

Crazy Penguin Catapult is a very, very cute game. The penguins and bears are equally expressive. The game looked great on mobile, but is now even more attractive on the iPhone. The extra screen real estate is put to good use, too. You can see more of the bear field now, which helps you plot your moves when bombing the bears. The music and effects are also very well done. However, the music does loop quite a bit and may feel too repetitive to some players.

Crazy Penguin Catapult was reviewed with version 1.0.3.

The Verdict

Crazy Penguin Catapult is indeed a charming game and I think any casual gamer will get a lot of smiles from it. Admittedly, I was disappointed that this was a straight port of the mobile game without any real extras. However, I suspect the majority of people that play Catapult will be newcomers, so they will likely not notice it. It's a wonderful little goof worth the five bucks. Download it and enjoy Catapult inside with a nice mug of hot (digital) chocolate.